There are several ways. The first is buying from a known good vendor who is a friend of Habanos SA. The second method is be careful inspection of the packaging, this gets pretty detailed, but more on that later. Third would be observation of the presentation. Last would be an inspection of the bands and the cigars themselves. I personally don't buy from vendors that deband, but there are some legitimate ones that do nevertheless.

For the record, I'm not going to discuss sources in this thread, nor should anyone else.

Interesting. I live close to Cigars International, their retail location is very nice. The entire store is a humidor and the smell is just delicious.

I know very little about cigars and no longer consume tobacco or alcohol, but they're still an interesting topic.